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Unlimited vacation reflects of strategy of trust

RL Solutions likes to recruit people &lsquo;with a good heart&rsquo; and then find where their skills will fit.

Sanjay Malaviya, CEO, President and founder of RL Solutions, cues up during a game of pool with Office Manager Jessica Horak. (Nick Kozak / For the Toronto Star)

By Paul GallantSpecial to the Star

Wed., Nov. 23, 2011

“They said, ‘No problem, we have unlimited vacation time,’“ says Lathem, who took the position of vice-president of product management earlier this month.

Lathem first encountered RL Solutions a couple of years ago when working on an infection-prevention product for 3M. RL Solutions, which creates and supports an array of software for health-care organizations that include many of North America’s top hospitals, was offering a product that tracks infection rates. As the two companies worked toward a deal, Lathem quickly warmed to RL’s team and their personable approach.

“When you meet more than one person from RL Solutions, you see how they interact with each other. It’s a way of listening and understanding that just oozes out of them. It’s palpable,” says Lathem. “One time I was leaving a conference and I had three team members make sure I got back to the hotel all right.”

Certainly, rewards for meeting goals, flexible hours, an aggressive RSP matching program, a fitness program, office game consoles and a pool table, and unlimited vacations are the most tangible perks offered by the 105-person company. But employees say it’s the team assembled by CEO and founder Sanjay Malaviya that makes RL Solutions a great place to work. The hiring strategy at the company that placed third among smaller companies in the Best GTA Employers survey is considered more vital to worker satisfaction than the compensation package.

“We’re very much a family,” says Malaviya, who worked at St. Michael’s Hospital before founding the company in 1997. “When we’re recruiting, we will take good people over smart people — if you take the extremes in those areas. Come in with a good heart, come in caring about what you do, come in caring about the people you work with, then we’ll see what your skills are and we’ll find a fit.”

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With its headquarters located in the entertainment district, the young and ethnically diverse staff regularly go out together for a bite and drinks when they’re not staying late to meet a deadline.

Jessica Horak started as a receptionist about 18 months ago. With a B.A. in sociology and French, she wasn’t sure it was the right position for her until she saw the office, with its exposed brick and comfy couches, and met Malaviya.

“They asked me about me, like I was a person, not just who I looked like on paper,” says Horak.

Early into her tenure, Horak was making suggestions beyond her job description, like how a water filtration system would be cheaper and take up less room than bottles. She says her suggestions were heard and respected. Eight months ago, she was promoted to office manager. When the unlimited vacation policy was introduced this year, Horak and other employees were skeptical. “I thought of it as a challenge. How do we track it? I was like, sell me on it.”

Malaviya decided on the policy when he realized the company had never kept track of time off taken by the core management team, who had all been friends before the company got off the ground. He figured that if he trusted all his employees, it was a strategy worth having company-wide. In particular, he didn’t want employees who had used up their holidays to be stressed out if they needed a day off here and there for family emergencies.

“If you manage by worrying about abusers, you’re going to have a company of abusers,” says Malaviya.

“I see my job as getting rid of as much policy and procedures as possible.”

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